{"id":14112,"date":"2014-07-17T13:08:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T21:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14112"},"modified":"2014-07-17T13:08:06","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T21:08:06","slug":"take-my-casino-please-nail-biter-in-iowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/take-my-casino-please-nail-biter-in-iowa\/","title":{"rendered":"Take my casino, please; Nail-biter in Iowa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rather than accept\u00a0three potential casino closings as a fait accompli<\/em>, Unite-Here<\/strong> is out beating the bushes for potential buyers. Given, the \"Showboat<\/a>casinos aren’t Unite-Here’s to sell but there’s no law that says the union can’t play matchmaker.\u00a0“We want the world to know that we’re looking for partners, not saviors or messiahs. We will work with them,” spake\u00a0local president Robert McDevitt<\/strong>, which is a fancy way of saying that wage and benefit concessions are on the table<\/a>, as an enticement.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The union plans to contact potential buyers for the casinos, saying they can be profitably run if bought at a low enough price,” reports The Associated Press<\/strong>. Of course, price is something over which the union exerts no control. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> has to get his bondholders the best price he can for the Showboat<\/strong>. And what Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> is willing to sell Trump Plaza<\/strong> for and what creditor Carl Icahn<\/strong> will allow\u00a0it to accept could be two very different things. We know Hard Rock International<\/strong> has been circling Revel<\/strong> for a while but how much is it disposed\u00a0to offer\u00a0at the bankruptcy auction? Or does Caesars covet it and is using the Showboat closure to screen itself from antitrust action?<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it’s not a matter of who owns the casinos or how thriftily they can be run — which might be a cure worse than the disease. (McDevitt should remember better than most how Columbia Sussex<\/strong> penny-pinched the Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> into near-ruin.) It’s that there aren’t enough customers to go around. Pending a change in Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s image, it may just have too many casinos.<\/p>\n

* International Game Technology<\/strong> gave itself a firm pat on the back for selling itself to Gtech. I don’t buy CEO Patti Hart<\/strong>‘s argument that \"Hart\"<\/a>fewer slotmakers = more innovation. It sounds like self-serving bullshit<\/a>. The more players you have in the industry, the more urgency exists to differentiate oneself. Indeed, we could see the slot sector drift into a period of complacency and debt retirement. IGT now becomes just one of three slot firms owned by Gtech<\/strong>, along with Atronic<\/strong> and Spielo<\/strong>. (Admittedly, the best<\/em> of the three.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis opportunity comes along once in a CEO\u2019s lifetime,\u201d added Hart. \u201cThe ability to start from scratch and create a company with this strength is all about the perfect timing.\u201d Of course, those won’t Vice<\/em> Chairman Hart’s calls to make. She’s also not in a position to guarantee the job security of IGT’s workforce but she maintains it was one of the attractions of the company to Gtech. So was DoubleDown Casino<\/strong>, a pricey acquisition for which Hart was much pilloried at the time but which has saved her bacon more than once.<\/p>\n

* Here’s a shocking development. (Not<\/a>.) Trying to save jobs — and commerce — at Argosy Sioux City<\/strong>, owner Penn National Gaming<\/strong> has taken its case to the Iowa Supreme Court<\/strong>. Contending that it knows Hawkeye State law best, Penn argues that both the Iowa Gaming & Racing Commission<\/strong>‘s closure order and Judge Elizabeth Ovrom<\/strong>‘s upholding of same are predicated in “errors of law and\u00a0…not supported by \"penn-national-gaming\"<\/a>substantial evidence.” Since the Supremes only have until Tuesday to act before the riverboat closes, Penn has asked for a brief extension of Ovrom’s one-week stay of execution. Not only would hundreds of employees be out of work otherwise, Penn says it would lose a $100 million asset. This is as good as a thriller, going right down to the wire — although Penn would be pardoned if it didn’t share the excitement.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rather than accept\u00a0three potential casino closings as a fait accompli, Unite-Here is out beating the bushes for potential buyers. Given, the casinos aren’t Unite-Here’s to sell but there’s no law that says the union can’t play matchmaker.\u00a0“We want the world … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,82,15,183,165,7,29,37,86,69,25,157,8,21,169],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14113,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14112\/revisions\/14113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}